dignitaries attended, including illinois governor pat quinn, chicago mayor rahm emanuel, reverend jesse jackson and education secretary arne duncan. >>> president obama used his weekly address today to press congress to prevent a series of automatic spending cuts from taking place on march 1st. the president says the cuts would strike a blow to the economy at a critical time. >> at a time when economists and business leaders from across the spectrum have said our economy is poised for progress, we shouldn't allow self-inflicted wounds to put that progress in jeopardy. >> congress put off the so- called sequester as part of the last-minute fiscal cliff deal on new year's day. if a spending deal is not reached, more than $500 billion will be cut from the defense department and other national security agencies. >>> the boeing aircraft company today sent one of its 787 dreamliner jets on a test flight. 50 of the jets have been grounded worldwide because of fears about fires from the plane's lithium ion batteries. a 787 took off today from boeing field in seattle and spent almost two hours flying mo